THE IRA is edging towards an historic declaration that its war with Britain is over, sources close to the Northern Ireland peace process have disclosed.

It is believed to be nearing a decision to announce that it has given up its military operations and will decommission all weapons and end punishment beatings and surveillance activities.

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, Education Minister in the suspended Ulster Executive and a former IRA veteran, is spearheading secret moves to persuade IRA leaders to remove for ever the threat of violence hanging over Ulster. Both the Irish and British Governments are believed to have set an unofficial deadline of the end of February for a substantial move from the IRA.

Sinn Fein leaders and the Irish Government are believed to be warning Tony Blair that a suspension of next May’s elections in Northern Ireland would ruin the delicate operation and put back the peace process for years. Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, is expected to deliver that message to Mr Blair today at Chequers.

The confidential moves to restart the process began soon after Mr Blair told the republican movement last October that it must renounce violence for ever to be allowed back into Northern Ireland’s Government, and that the days of inch-by-inch negotiations were over. A source said: “The hope is that IRA commanders and volunteers will be persuaded to give up their guns and go home. The understanding would be that they could retire and paramilitaries on the other side would be expected to do the same.”

At the same time as the IRA ceased its paramilitary activity Sinn Fein would sign up to the cross-community policing board and the way would be open for further acts of “normalisation”, including troop withdrawals and allowing fugitive IRA terrorists to return to Northern Ireland.

The IRA, according to the sources, will never be persuaded to announce a formal “disbandment”, which in its eyes would amount to a military defeat. For that reason it was a word Mr Blair declined to use in his ultimatum to the IRA in which he called on it to deliver “acts of completion”, action showing that it had renounced violence for ever.

According to sources Mr McGuinness believes that he can deliver such “acts of completion” by the end of February, allowing the Executive to be restored and the elections to go ahead.

The Irish Government and Sinn Fein fear that David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, could effectively veto the elections by refusing to return to the executive. They also fear that anything short of a complete disbandment will fail to satisfy Mr Trimble.

However, the elections can proceed while the Executive remains suspended and Dublin is clearly pressing for Mr Blair to make plain that they will happen in any case.

Dublin is telling Sinn Fein that further symbolic acts of decommissioning will not be enough to spur confidence that the war is over. Sources say that the IRA is being advised to come clean on the location of its weapons dumps and put them beyond use.

A senior source said: “There would be terrible difficulties over all of this if, six months after they had declared the end of war, another arms dump came to light.”

The British Government made plain this week that former republican terrorists would be eligible to sit on local police boards if the IRA ceased all operation. The proposal will be added to legislation if the IRA delivers the acts of completion. If loyalist groups disband, their ex-terrorists will also be eligible.

Mr McGuinness is seen by both Governments as the pivotal figure in delivering the IRA package and Dublin is insisting on moves from the IRA by February to allow time for the election preparations.

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